Browned eye dip....

[CTom]

Here's a few I made today using a cup of clear plastic eye dip that had been re-heated or re-melted enough times that it was beginning to brown a bit. I added an equal amount of fresh plastic to it along with copper, black and metallic brown micro-glitters and used it for the top color over silver pearl in this bait.



Transparent baits have begun to get hot fishing the Mississippi River backwaters in this region so I have had to make up some fish food. This one should trip some triggers with the crappies.

[CTom]

Here are a couple other fairly transparent colors I made up just for these fussy crappies.



All of the baits shown here are 2 1/2" in length and are fished on 1/16 heads using the new Eagle Claw sickle hooks. Great combination of ingredients.

[Cray]

Those are some nice looking baits Ctom. They should get the job done.

[Fatman]

Nice as always!!!!!!!!!!

[ifish]

Very Nice CTom. Great resourcing of materials. Does the second pic have UV or is that another purple tint? Do you think the eagleclaw sickles are running a little small for the size they are selling? I got some # 1's and they are smaller compared to Matzuo's I think. Great pours and I still need to get that mold.

[Luvfatslabs]

Very nice work

[CTom]

Does the second pic have UV or is that another purple tint? Do you think the eagleclaw sickles are running a little small for the size they are selling?

All of my plastics get the UV treatment and the less colored and clearer the plastic is the more apparent it is that the uv is in there. Love the stuff now that I've been fishing it for a half a year. Even my black get uv enhancer put into it.

On the hook size....Matzuo was always a bit larger than the other brands in my estimation and the Eagle Claws look more normal than the Matzuo's now that I am casting them [EC's] again. I always thought that a Mustad # 6 or #4 jig hook looked wider in the gap than the same sizes in a Eagle Claw. When I started with the Matzuos I thought they were even larger in the gap than the Mustad counterparts. I suppose a guy could sit down with a caliper and find out for certain but I'm not that fussy really. Where I get miffed is where the matzuos will vary so much in the distance from the shank of the hook to the bottom of the line eye. Some of the Mats were so short the eye would get buried in the head. I haven't seen one instance of that in the 1000 assorted EC sickles I have cast thus far. I'm just happier than heck with the new sickles and plan to stay with them now. Too much drama with the Asian hooks.

[CTom]

"Great resourcing of materials"....

Way too many people toss plastic that still has a lot of life left in it. Blacks and dark greens have been colors to think about but by thinning down that browned stuff at a rate of about 50% with new plastic and some stabilizer a lot of nice natural colors can be whipped up using either some colorant, glitters or hi lite/pearl powders. Prior to thinning, the plastic I used here in the top color was an amber. It was crystal clear and not at all objectionable. Going right into it with glitter would have leant a nice amber brown for a crawfish patter. Had I been looking at it for a walleye color instead of one for crappies I would have left it as it was and hit it with glitter and some gold or orange or green hi lites.

[snake River]

ctom They look horrible like usual.

we also been out in the shop today working on a mold that we cut in half don't recommend anybody doing this. but in my case it worked.

also read today about you guys welding plastics together pretty cool I'll have to give that a shot maybe you can post on that here a little bit.

[CTom]

I'm hitting the drink early in the morning and wanted to have a mess of those welded puppies along in several color combinations. Lets just say I have some real warm finger tips tonight.

A little tip on welding....I suggest a clear cover dip at least past the weld. This helps add some strength to the bait at that point. Hand-welds are never as solid as an injected weld.